I could have posted this on Identifying deception patterns on the web as well, but here is better.
This is not a small feature creep however, but a widely used common and accepted practice, that is nonetheless a great problem to transparency on the internet. It stimulates unethical and even outright immoral uses, both by companies, as well as in political realms.
I am talking about Dark Posts and they are described in the article below, though it is not only Facebook using them. Dark Posts are supported by many platforms!
What are Facebook Dark Posts?
In a reaction to The Rise of the Weaponized AI Propaganda Machine:
““Dark Posts” are unpublished page posts. They used to be called “dark posts” officially, but now they’re just called “unpublished posts”. I guess now we know why the name changed.”
article link | see also: Dark Posts and Facebook’s deals with the devil
Dark posts are official statements by brands or politicians that appear to be publicly available, but in fact they do not appear on the public feed of the brand at all, but are only displayed to a targeted group of people (using ad targeting mechanisms). Sometimes they are only available for a limited time and then fully disappear, making it a great tool to influence public opinion without harming brand image or reputation!